Tiffany Young, adjunct professor for the College of Education and Human Development and KaPreace Young, Equity and Diversity specialist for Washoe County School District, traveled to Lusaka, Zambia, in October 2022 to participate in the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders Reciprocal Exchange. The U.S. Department of State, in partnership with IREX, supported U.S. participants' travel to sub-Saharan Africa to conduct skills workshops for Mandela Washington Fellowship alums.

The project facilitated workshops in Zambia to a network of women micro-entrepreneur educators and their trainees, who have undergone virtual training conducted in 2021 jointly by Inota Cheta, and Tiffany Young, with a presentation by KaPreace Young, supported by IREX and Partners of the Americans – The Citizens Diplomacy Action Fund.

 

"Our targeted beneficiaries are women micro-entrepreneurs who have participated in entrepreneurship workshops directly trained by myself and Iota, as well as women who have been trained by women who have undergone our program," Tiffany Young said.

The project conducted five workshops of forty participants in Lusaka, and Chongwe, the latter two being rural communities.

"Our targeted beneficiaries are women micro-entrepreneurs who have participated in entrepreneurship workshops directly trained by myself and Iota, as well as women who have been trained by women who have undergone our program," Tiffany Young said.

The project conducted five workshops of forty participants in Lusaka, and Chongwe, the latter two being rural communities.

"The project's first outcome is increasing the number of women micro-entrepreneurs who have knowledge of soft skills that complement their business skills to contribute to success in their business," Tiffany Young said. "The second outcome of the project is to increase the number of women who are able to train other micro-entrepreneurs in soft skills to contribute to the success of other enterprises in their communities."

The workshops helped equip 200 women micro-entrepreneurs in Zambia who have undergone business training with soft skills to complement their business skills and promote the COVID-19 resilience of their micro-enterprises. During the programs, the women were virtually taught business resilience to enable them to keep afloat during the pandemic. 

"The project selected 200 women who have undergone entrepreneurship training and their beneficiaries," Tiffany Young said. "The 2021 virtual workshops selected women who have a circle of influence of between 20 and 50 people in their community groups; for example, religious groups, community banking groups and women's leagues. Based on the current cohort of women we have that are readily linked to community groups, we calculate that the impact will be between 4,000 to 10,000 individuals."

After conducting a post-training assessment, results showed that 95% of the business lessons resonated with the participants. However, a number did not feel confident with regard to the implementation of soft skills to enhance their businesses and ultimately ensure the survival of their micro-enterprises during the pandemic.

Tiffany Young and KaPreace Young worked alongside Inota Cheta, who is a founder of the organization She Entrepreneur, established in 2016. It is the largest organization of women micro-entrepreneurs in Zambia. Cheta has strong linkages to her community, which has enabled her and the team to grow the organization to a network of more than 4,000 women micro-entrepreneurs. 

Tiffany Young and her family were the first Americans to open their home to Cheta in 2018 when she attended the Mandela Washington Fellowship Young African Leaders Initiative program at the University of Nevada, Reno, under the leadership of Carina Black with the Northern Nevada International Center. During her time in Reno, she participated in the formative processes of the launch of Shades of Queening, in which KaPreace Young is a co-founder. 

Tiffany Young and Inota Cheta first collaborated on African soil in 2018 when they received the first reciprocal award from IREX. The duo trained 100-plus student educators in the capital city, Lusaka and conducted rural outreach to 40-plus teachers in Choma. The calculated impact of their work is more than 2,000 educators.

In 2021, Tiffany Young and Inota Cheta, in response to the pandemic, sought to assist in building COVID-19 resilience for female micro-entrepreneurs who were most affected by the pandemic, most of whom had lost their livelihoods. KaPreace Young also was invited to present a workshop.

"Traveling internationally and working with women driven to learn and grow deeply impacted my global cultural worldview," KaPreace Young said. "Not only was I able to share my knowledge and experience, but I learned a great deal as well."

Tiffany Young volunteered in the project sponsored by IREX, which saw 100 women trained online. This program was a great success and had more than 600 applicants.

In order to serve the unmet need, the duo jointly sourced, funded and was awarded four months later, in November 2021, the CDAF award. This enabled the duo to virtually train 200 women micro-entrepreneurs out of the 950 women who applied. The program participants went on to establish informal community groups in their rural communities to promote peer-to-peer mentoring for women micro-entrepreneurs. The estimated impact of this effort in the next two years is 10,000 women entrepreneurs.

Inota Cheta and Tiffany Young are continuing to support the network of 300 micro-entrepreneurs who were trained in 2021. The women have created community clusters that we will continue to support in the coming years.